Woodside’s Coleman delivers funding and new partner

His management style is low-key and conservative compared with his bullish predecessor but
Woodside
boss
Peter Coleman
is clearly delivering results.

Coleman, who has been running Woodside since Don Voelte stepped down last May, sold a key stake in Woodside’s Browse LNG project for a tidy $US2 billion on Tuesday.

The deal resolves concerns about how Woodside was going to fund the project and gives the company an important Japanese strategic partner in the form of the Mitsubishi-Mitsui alliance which acquired the stake.

It has been a good start to the year for Coleman; Woodside’s $15 billion Pluto project produced its first gas this week after years of delays and cost blowouts.

Coleman is delivering on a promise to take a more disciplined approach to investments when he first flagged possible sales of stakes in Browse, Pluto and Sunrise last year.

Sharing the funding burden for LNG projects has become a vital part of Coleman’s strategy as the company shifts away from becoming an aggressive Australian project developer to diversify offshore.

Coleman is experienced in building large capex projects from his years at Exxon. Woodside strategy chief Greg Roder also played a key role driving the Browse deal.

Tuesday’s deal also shifts the focus back towards the North-West Shelf as the most likely site for processing from Browse, as the Japanese partners are opposed to current plans for a site at James Price Point on the Kimberley coast.